Pan-Slavic ideas in the theory and practice of Russian emigration (1920s–1930s)

A.Y. Suslov

Kazan National Research Technological University, Kazan, 420015 Russia

E-mail: plusha131333@yandex.ru

Received February 27, 2020

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DOI: 10.26907/2541-7738.2020.3.160-170

For citation: Suslov A.Y. Pan-Slavic ideas in the theory and practice of Russian emigration (1920s–1930s). Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2020, vol. 162, no. 3, pp. 160–170. doi: 10.26907/2541-7738.2020.3.160-170. (In Russian)

Abstract

The Socialist League of the New East was a new form of political activity of the first wave of emigrants from the former Russian Empire due to the loss of confidence in traditional institutions. The paper considers the activities of the League in the late 1920s, its attempts to integrate parts of the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Caucasian emigration. The prerequisites for the emergence of this project as an attempt to revive pan-Slavic ideas in a socialist shell and taking into account the latest integration trends were studied. Modern literature devoted to the Socialist League of the New East was analyzed. The role of V.M. Chernov, a leader of the Russian socialist revolutionaries in emigration, in the creation of the Socialist League of the New East was investigated. The program provisions of the Socialist League of the New East provided for the division of the Soviet Union into seven independent national States. This project caused a negative reaction from almost the entire socialist spectrum of Russian emigration. The reasons for the failure of the project of the Socialist League of the New East were discussed. For V.M. Chernov and his Russian comrades, this was an idealistic attempt to revive pan-Slavic ideas. However, for the nationalist-minded socialists of the former Russian Empire, the main thing was the recognition and support of their Russian colleagues in their desire for de facto independence. As a result, this attempt for unity turned out to be rejected by the overwhelming majority of Russian emigrant socialists.

Keywords: pan-Slavism, pan-Europeanism, League of New East, V.M. Chernov, socialists-revolutio­naries, emigration

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